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Brew Views: The Dead Zone

When missiles fly.

By AP KRYZA
THE DEAD ZONE

Like The Shining, The Dead Zone is proof that films are much better off using Stephen King's ideas as a template rather than treating them as gospel. Make no mistake, 1983's The Dead Zone is a full-on, bug-fuck David Cronenberg flick, and King himself could never have imagined a creation so strange and surreal as Christopher Walken. Here, as a man plagued by psychic premonitions and visions of a global disaster, Walken eschews punctuation in his trademark way and one-ups his own oddball delivery. Matching Walken step by step is Martin Sheen as a deranged senator. But really, if the movie consisted solely of Walken reacting in a Walken-y way to his premonitions as if being zapped in the brain, it would still be terrific.

  1. Showing at: Laurelhurst.
  2. Best paired with: Manny’s Pale Ale.
  3. Also showing: The Thing (Hollywood), Lincoln (Academy).

WWeek 2015